November 2015
Poetry is a lonely business, but I have a friend who plays guitar, and when I play bass with him, I find community. My most recent book is In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013 and I've had recent poems in Hummingbird, Atticus Review, Hamilton Stone Review, and other literary magazines. I'm honored to serve as managing editor of the Lorine Niedecker Monograph Series, What Region?. I blog as The Middlewesterner (www.middlewesterner.com), and have put up at least five little poems a week since mid-2008.
Autumn Morning
All these fields, Lord,
the stands of trees.
We cannot have
what we cannot see.
The hills, Lord,
the morning light,
and let me find
the shine of silence.
The Blue Sky Darkening
now, the birds settling,
the wind letting down.
As the shadows lengthen
I wonder at the world
and in this failing light
begin to understand
the loneliness of God.
Marsh Walk
Low-down ground with water
and autumn's color. Crow
says go and still we stay
here where earth meets heaven.
©2015 Tom Montag